Piecing the Exploding Star

Now that I had the technique down (see Tuesday’s post), it was time to start piecing the top.

I started in with the center star……

….and then realized that I should have added more bits to the star points BEFORE I put them together. SO….a little ripping ensued……

I added the bits to the orange diamonds…..

Doesn’t this look good……

As I worked on various sections, I struggled with keeping the pieces in the correct order so there was a lot of referring to a picture……

It was enjoyable to see how the bits came together…..

Come back tomorrow and I will take it up to where it stands right now……

Let’s piece some 60-degree diamonds

I have enjoyed working on the new quilt that I am designing, but first I had to learn to piece the inset seams on the diamonds!!

I used Gyleen Fitzgerald’s book, “Polygon Affair”…..

….to learn the piecing process.

Check out this video to learn more…..

I am enjoying actually doing the piecing. Come back on Thursday for more!!

Cutting 60-degree diamonds

Yesterday I was talking about getting organized to make my “Diamond Explosion” quilt and was pleased to find that I could piece the 60-degree diamonds easily.

Now it was time to cut the real fabrics and get started!!

I knew that I could cut the diamonds just using my regular straight ruler….I had done it back in May…..

….but it wouldn’t be as easy since I needed to cut the fabrics one at a time, rather than having them stitched together.

I really like Deb Tucker Rulers and decided to purchase her 60-degree wedge tool…..

Using this tool, I can cut out strips of fabric and then cut the diamonds easily from the strips!!

I settled on a 3-inch finished diamond which meant that my strip was cut 3.5-inches.

The first step was to make the initial cut to start the diamond shape. To do this, I placed the ruler on the strip, being sure that the lines were parallel to the cut edge of the strip…..

A quick slice, and we were ready to go…..

Next, I placed the ruler so that the 6.5-inch mark was at the point I had just created (6.5….because it was 2 times the 3-inch finished size, plus 1/2 inch for the seam allowance)….

Another slice…..

…..and I had a diamond……

As I pieced, I ended up needing some half diamonds and went back to the ruler for those.

In this case, the ruler was placed on the 3.5-inch line……

…..which meant that the top point was missing…..

And, NO….that was not a mistake!!

Having the point clipped off meant that it was SUPER easy to line the piece up when I was ready to sew it in place…..

Once I had a bunch of diamonds cut, I immediately started piecing……

…and then realized that I had other pieces that should have been added BEFORE I sewed these!!!

So, I will leave it here……with seam ripper in hand!!

Come back next week for more of the diamond piecing odyssey!!!

Diamond Explosion

Last week I posted about my work to design a quilt using 60-degree diamonds and left the design process here…..

But, EXACTLY how would I piece this??

I started out working with paper and pen and trying to design piecing diagrams but I kept working myself into corners.

Then, I switched to my iPad and used Procreate to play with it further.

It was then that it HIT me…..

Work it in ROUNDS!!!

Now I have to figure out if I can actually piece using these diamonds!!

Instead of starting with my fabric, I grabbed some scraps and played until I was convinced that I could do it.

I pulled out Gyleen Fitzgerald’s book…..

…and spent some time studying the process that she used.

I first practiced sewing them into a straight line…..

….and then using inset seams…..

AND THEY WORKED!!!

This was a great way to feel a bit more comfortable with the process before I started working on the quilt itself!!

So, with fear and trembling, I started cutting the fabrics…..

……come back tomorrow to learn about the ruler and cutting process!!

July Bargello…

I have once again fallen down on the job with posting about the quilts from the British Quilt List challenge that I participated in back in 2009!!

The July quilt was a simple bargello design…..

I love the fabrics that I used for this piece, particularly the sparkles that are coming out of the “fireworks”!!!

Additionally, our guild challenge for December has just been announced, and guess what…..it is a BARGELLO quilt.

I am looking forward to playing with some designs in the upcoming months and seeing what I can do with them!!!

Category: Pieced Quilts